code of mass media systems is information/non-information.
99 When examining
the social dimension of ICT and the transfer of data on different levels of
hardware, programming or online interactions, communication and information
become interwoven, or even converge. It seems that the use of ICT even outside
the mass media context operates around transmission of information, which
could suggest distinction between transmission and non-transmission as a possible
candidate for the system’s code.
Another option is to look at the infrastructure surrounding this transmission,
which creates the possibility of social meaning creation. In this case, the medium
for the use of ICT could be located in functionality, operability, information relay
or even elegance of the solution. Elegance of the code infrastructure might be a
considered as the key element in the system’s functionality, as elegance could
make it more adaptable to its environment. However, no clear-cut answer is to be
found as to the content of code by examining the social dimension surrounding
the use of ICT. This ambiguity might be the flipside of the system’s emergent
nature: the code and the medium might still be work in progress, if the system’s
cohesion had not led to a sufficiently powerful way of establishing system
boundaries. In fact, the difficulty of finding the code can be read as a sign of
the emergence. Also, this could explain why the distinction between the social
system of use of ICT and the non-social technology is not always lucid.
How would this conceptualisation of the use of ICT as an emergent system
facilitate the task at hand, which is to assess the technology-driven privatisation of
coercion? This approach enables us to perceive the disruptive qualities of technology from a perspective internal to the legal system, as it permits us to focus on
the social dimension of dispute resolution technology on a general level without
oversimplification. Also, it would provide an explanation to why this technological change poses a fundamental challenge for law, an irritant that the legal system
must address in its operations. In short, it gives a more nuanced framework for
assessing the relationship between law and technology on a macro level without
placing the focus on any individual technological application.
2.6 Conclusions
In this chapter I have laid out the theoretical framework which I employ in order
to answer how the implementation of technology in dispute resolution challenges
the justification of law as a legitimised mode of violence. Law is a stability-creating
social subsystem of society that upholds normative expectations regardless of
disappointment. The previous section discussed the theoretical premises of this
study and established law as a stability-creating social system that upholds normative expectations regardless of disappointment. Law reproduces itself independently
from other social systems through continuous flow of networked communication
that conforms to the system-specific coding of legal/illegal, the legal system’s
grammar that safeguards its boundaries and identity. This operative closure,
where other systems cannot interfere with the legal system’s operations and its
self-production is balanced by cognitive openness, which explains how external
50 Theoretical implications of dispute resolution technology
99 When examining
the social dimension of ICT and the transfer of data on different levels of
hardware, programming or online interactions, communication and information
become interwoven, or even converge. It seems that the use of ICT even outside
the mass media context operates around transmission of information, which
could suggest distinction between transmission and non-transmission as a possible
candidate for the system’s code.
Another option is to look at the infrastructure surrounding this transmission,
which creates the possibility of social meaning creation. In this case, the medium
for the use of ICT could be located in functionality, operability, information relay
or even elegance of the solution. Elegance of the code infrastructure might be a
considered as the key element in the system’s functionality, as elegance could
make it more adaptable to its environment. However, no clear-cut answer is to be
found as to the content of code by examining the social dimension surrounding
the use of ICT. This ambiguity might be the flipside of the system’s emergent
nature: the code and the medium might still be work in progress, if the system’s
cohesion had not led to a sufficiently powerful way of establishing system
boundaries. In fact, the difficulty of finding the code can be read as a sign of
the emergence. Also, this could explain why the distinction between the social
system of use of ICT and the non-social technology is not always lucid.
How would this conceptualisation of the use of ICT as an emergent system
facilitate the task at hand, which is to assess the technology-driven privatisation of
coercion? This approach enables us to perceive the disruptive qualities of technology from a perspective internal to the legal system, as it permits us to focus on
the social dimension of dispute resolution technology on a general level without
oversimplification. Also, it would provide an explanation to why this technological change poses a fundamental challenge for law, an irritant that the legal system
must address in its operations. In short, it gives a more nuanced framework for
assessing the relationship between law and technology on a macro level without
placing the focus on any individual technological application.
2.6 Conclusions
In this chapter I have laid out the theoretical framework which I employ in order
to answer how the implementation of technology in dispute resolution challenges
the justification of law as a legitimised mode of violence. Law is a stability-creating
social subsystem of society that upholds normative expectations regardless of
disappointment. The previous section discussed the theoretical premises of this
study and established law as a stability-creating social system that upholds normative expectations regardless of disappointment. Law reproduces itself independently
from other social systems through continuous flow of networked communication
that conforms to the system-specific coding of legal/illegal, the legal system’s
grammar that safeguards its boundaries and identity. This operative closure,
where other systems cannot interfere with the legal system’s operations and its
self-production is balanced by cognitive openness, which explains how external
50 Theoretical implications of dispute resolution technology